Leadership, not thievery! (#1278)

I can never say this enough, there are no "deserves" here in life. If we ever feel like we deserve something, then it has just happened that we should never have it. This idea has been at the core of my struggles my whole life. When I was younger I used to think that good things came to those who did all they were supposed to rightly do. Of course over time I learned that this is not how things work. In our society, good things come to those who are willing to break the rules and celebrate the theft of others' due, as a process. I cannot justify that kind of mentality, so instead, I just live without the good things coming to me for the effort I put out. I accept that there are those who would take what rightly belongs to others to fuel their own self-importance and ego. It is just the way it is. I want that to change but I cannot change it by applying the same processes that I want to change. So what I must do is continue doing the right things and expose those who do the wrong things. Eventually our society will realize that we are all hurt when even one person breaks the rules and takes from those who otherwise would be deserving. Our society will only grow and prosper when the individual integrity of us all count as a priority. In the meantime, those who become and remain cynical, will be the ones who hold us back. My approach is to accept whatever happens as best I can and move onto the next worthy effort, all the while pointing out where dishonest intentions steal from those whose right is justified. 

Our human species (#1277)

As we gather into our groups and subgroups, we must always remember that we are first and foremost a human species. There is no denying that we are all related to each other by the fact of our almost identical physical biology and mental acuity. There are degrees of differences that make some of us unique to each other but overall, the differences are minute. Yet we seem to desire to magnify our small differences into large wedges as ways to alienate ourselves from ourselves. Over time, these miniscule distortions have allowed our society to create classes of people that, in a discriminating way, affect the quality of life for each individual pigeonholed in whatever class they may fall. How this has come about is a direct effect of how we allow our differences to dominate our society as opposed to how our similarities should be allowed to integrate us instead. I am in a constant argument with those who can only see the history of our society and the current status quo as the only avenue for our society to follow upon. For some reason they have lost the innocence of vision that requires us to think of what could be but of instead only of what is allowed to remain. It is as if a resignation to the status quo has taken the life out of what our species is actually capable of. I am no genius here in advocating that given what our brilliant forefathers gave us here in America, a chance to actually change our society to reflect what is the absolute best of who we are as humans, that we should take advantage of starting a way of thinking that does not harm ourselves but instead elevates our connections to each other in ways that bring out what each of us brings to existence. I have no doubt that we are all capable of great things, yet at this time in our current society, we do not honor what could be, in lieu of settling for what is and nothing more.

The importance of objectivity (#1276)

I mention this definitive word a lot when writing about how we should view our environment and our thought processes. Actually, everything in existence needs to be filtered through objectivity. Let me provide the definition of objectivity from a general understanding: "From a neutral point of view". As an analogy, it is like starting in the center of a thing and when all sides of a thing have been viewed, then moving in the direction of the most logical conclusion about the thing. Where we end up from an objective analysis is uncertain, but where we start from an objective analysis is always certain. One cannot have preconceived notions when one is objective, otherwise, that is known as being subjective: "(Subjective) refers to the subject and his or her perspective, feelings, beliefs, and desires".-Wikipedia. Subjectivity is where we have our confusion and chaos as to a starting point for analysis. Objectivity eliminates all confusion and chaos that subjectivity encourages, because we have a fresh unadulterated foundation to which to begin from. I know that some think that previous generations of thought have allowed for some preconceptions to have valid foundational premises attached to a thing, however, when we try to validate a subjective viewpoint based upon factors outside the simple thing we are examining, we are changing the nature of the thing in a way that pollutes it's actual nature. In other words, we must always approach our understanding of a thing based solely upon the nature of the thing and not what others have already concluded about it's nature. For most things this is necessary for us to maintain or own sense of discovery. In some areas we are not able to understand complex and intertwining things that have confusing conclusions and in those areas we must not venture opinions as facts unless we can prove it ourselves. My point here today is just to say that we must be the masters of our own understandings and actually do the work required to maintain that control. It all starts with our being an objective observer.

Irrational will has a price (#1275)

I know what this is. I have knowingly displayed it myself. I had been caught on the wrong side of an argument and would not relinquish the fact of my error. Instead I played it all the way through to the point of disengaging and calling out the other as wrong. Later, by myself, I could not believe that I had let the stubbornness of my ego, in wanting to be correct, actually push forward with an illogical conclusion to the detriment of my previous relationship. Yes I say previous because I lost my relationship with the one I was debating because he knew I was irrational and wanted nothing further to do with a person who could not admit he was wrong. I have been stung with many of these examples because of my stubborn nature to defend that which I was not able to logically defend. The case studies of my arrogance on display. If only I could have gone into the debates and logical arguments with an objective open mind I would have been able to allow my curiosity to be a priority instead of my ego. It has been many years since I have had those types of experiences as my will has been crushed down to only defending propositions and people who are earnest in developing facts and truths as opposed to inflated egos. The main lesson I have taken away from my bad behavior is that there are consequences to selfishness. I lost friendships over it and that is what hurts the most, although in my case necessary. I have also now come to that point in my life where I will disassociate from others if they insist on following illogical conclusions as rational. There must be a price to pay and the only real punitive price to inflict is to move on from them to others who are more attuned to putting logic above ego. it does not matter who the person is, all that matters is that logical rationality is forwarded in my life and leaving anyone out of my life has no boundaries based upon their intentional decision to be irrational.

Learning with a passion (#1274)

One of the three premises of mine concerning what I see as the natural instincts of our human nature is curiosity. I cannot ever stress this enough on this blog and in my conversations outside of this platform. I know that we as humans often get sidetracked from our goals and ambitious curiosities by our other two formidable natural instincts of caring about each other/ourselves, and about our own/others' personal survival. The intertwining of our caring and survival is normal and necessary for our lives to have the depth of emotion we all crave for ourselves and hope for others. Yet we cannot lose sight of our curiosity when we are engulfed in our emotional and protective pursuits to the neglect of our curiosity. As I have found for my own life, when I am into my learning, passionately pursuing answers to new questions, my life makes sense and my caring and survival heighten to new insights. In other words, when I am learning I am more able to care and protect those, including myself, that are around me. Of all of our 3 natural instincts, curiosity is the most important to me. Now that may be my perspective on how I live but it is true for me. When I am in the mode of opening my mind to what possibilities there are around me I am increasing options to which I can imagine. Enlightenment is a good thing, despite what some would see as detrimental. I want to know what can be so that I can offer myself new avenues for my caring and survival to operate within. My curiosity grows my ability to care with a greater panorama of vision toward how best to share my caring with the world and my survival is enhanced because I can better control my own destiny when I know how and why things happen. We, as a society of humans, need to place the greatest priority in our lives upon the ideal that learning is the key to our species' survival and it also is the key to finding our true happiness within our existence.

My cycling friendships (#1273)

At times, it seems that when I form a friendship with someone else that the particular bond that brings us together is so powerful that we will certainly be friends for a lifetime. However, it is only what it seems like. Not that all instances of friendship whither away over time but the vast majority of them do. What seemed monumental at one time becomes nothing more than a vague memory or an afterthought over some time. For me though, the most emotional and consequential times when I have made friends, sticks with me lick glue and if not for the other(s) having forgotten me, I would still be very close with them. It might be that I am sensitive about what it is to being friends and my particular others are not, or it might be that the value of friendship is held in less a high esteem by others than by me. Whatever the diagnosis for bonded friendships faltering, that they do is real and unsettling. Of course what is one to do but to move on but the feeling that a loss has occurred does not move on, it is just compartmentalized. My remedy for maintaining friendships is in finding ways to stay in contact on some kind of regular basis. When I think of someone I haven't seen in a while it is compulsive for me to reach out to them in some little way. When we place value on a "thing", we need to pay attention to it, such it is with friendship. It is all about making the effort. How many times have I heard "it is the thought that counts", and I know it is true. Even if nothing else can be done, just the thought of thinking and acknowledging that thought is important. I speak about this because I am starting to believe that too many people do not have the tools to understand how to keep friendships once they have made them. They do not understand the process of caring in some consistently known way to their friends, that brings life to their relationships in a meaningful way. 

The non-abrogation of our minds (#1272)

Yesterday I had a chance to talk to someone new to me and eventually the conversation moved to politics. I don't know if this is a typical phenomenon or not but he said something just like this; "I listen to and follow this guy I listen to on radio because what he says sounds true." I said back to him that he should do his own research on information, and that he is accepting as true from someone else that which is based on faith. I also told him that I listen to many different ideologies on subjects, yet despite whom is offering the information, I test it with my own research before I decide if it is true or not. He didn't seem too upset with me when I said what I said but I could tell I was infringing on his idea of what reality is to him. This is the type of comment about listening and accepting as truth what others say because you "trust" them that gets me irked. I don't trust anyone to tell me truths without verifying them first. It doesn't matter if the information aligns perfectly with my particular belief system or not at all, I always go to the source of the subject and search back out from there. I am not saying that people I know or don't know are purposely trying to mislead, but what I am saying is that people are often mislead. Even more so though is the responsibility I have to myself and the words that emanate from to me to others is to make sure that whatever it is I think I believe is true, must be validated with research and particular citations that hold up the point being made. I cannot and will not allow myself to be a vessel for others to flow their message through. I have a philosophy about our two main human natures, curiosity and compassion, and most everything must originate from those two foundations with an eye toward our species' survival. Given that I have a foundation to begin from, my learning and understanding of what could and should be true, demands that all information be held up to the light of day and observed with the most careful eye of objectivity. I owe that to myself as a requirement of my free will and the control thereof of my duty to utilize my own mind.  

The end is always a new beginning (#1271)

I have been at the end of so many things in life that I am certain that even in death, I will find a new beginning. Be that true or not about what happens after we die, I want to focus on the the things that happen in life where endings always lead to new beginnings. As I have grown older, the passions and experiences I once cherished have begun to elude me and I realize it. So, instead I begin to transition from those wonderful pursuits and activities toward other practices that are more sustainable for me. I have modified my concepts, that as a young man were limitless, to a now more wiser, older aged perspective. In other words, I don't run up mountains with alacrity, knowing that no mountain could ever hold me back, instead I stroll evenly and carefully in the hope that I can make it to the top. My days of playing sports and working like a madman, with the physical verve and agility I once displayed as a younger man, has now been replaced with just casual exercise and methodical work procedures without the lung bursting repetitions and accomplishing ever more in less time of past glory days. I admire those who are now young and who are doing the types of things I used to do when I was young, living life with a sense of immortality, combined with a sense of awe and enthusiasm for what more I could attain. Everything is perspective and in my little world, I was a majestic being who pushed my boundaries regularly. At the same time I was growing into a strong versatile young man, so was my mind about what I thought I could accomplish and maintain. It was there in my philosophy for living that my physical strength could not help me and my mental strength was overcome by my own ego. Time went by and eventually I came to realize the disconnect between the muscle and the mind. I have since over some time reconnected both and have since had the pleasure of some peace about reality and some peace about my future. Again, there is always a new beginning, even when we are mentally crushed by our old endings. That is why hope is still the greatest remedy to anything that has ever ailed us.

What is love? (#1270)

I know there are different kinds of love. There is the love of doing something that makes us feel really good. There is the love that is shared for family members and friends that secure us in the knowledge that we are truly connected in ways that bring us value and worth. Then there is the love that we share for someone in our lives that goes beyond all the other types of love. I am very familiar with the love of doing things, such as sports or creative thinking. those types of love are all around us and are not difficult to assimilate into our own lives. The love we share as family, like for our, children, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, and other extended family members and friends. This is a bit more difficult as not all families have a smooth transition over time and conflicts occur where some family members drift from others and the love for each other is no longer as strong as for the love we have for those family members we remain close with. Although this is regrettable, it is still somewhat normal for this to happen. Then of course there is the love for the "soul mate" that we find or are looking for. Yes, we can already be in love with the idea of someone we hope to meet but have not yet met. What is better is when the soul mate that has been met and that idea of becoming one has come into fruition. That is the best of love when it is in the form of intimacy. I have always, and deep down I know this to be true, that there is only one soul mate for me in the ideal. I am a stubborn one on this issue and I have come to the place in life where finding the one true love for my life is a quest that never ends until either I have found her or I am no longer able to look. If the fortune of fate is kind enough to me to allow me the joy of finding my soul mate, then the greatest priority in my life shifts from being on a quest to find her to building my hopefully, new found most special relationship into a magnificently shared co-existence.

Clarity diminishes fear (#1269)

When we can see beyond our own reality into the bigger reality we all share is when we begin to understand just how life really is. I do not live in a vacuum. I have relationships with so many people outside my little circle of everyday existence and if I choose to look at what is happening with those relationships, I begin to see that my opinions and conceptions are just one view among millions that exist. Like Aristotle, I use myself as a general reference point to help me understand human nature as well as natural existence. My thoughts and actions serve as a median example for any assumption I try to make in deciding an active response. Yet am I the true median example? Certainly it is possible but not so if I cannot distinguish how others are affected as well. I have my biases concerning likes and dislikes, so if I can remain objective, actually consider all sides to an equation, logically and without emotion, then I can be the median and at least start an assumption but not give the assumption any weight of truth, except that it may be my likely response. I do the best I can about making choices but I also know that I may be wrong in my choices at any given time, in fact if I am right in my choices I feel a sense humility, since my choices are not more right than wrong. I get that! However this post is about diminishing fear, which by the way has me in the greatest grip of doubt. By trying to see things from all sides and focusing on the problem at hand, I can reduce my fear of finding an answer and proceed as best I can by applying what I know about myself along with what I know about others. Moving forward with a process that helps me to define myself is ultimately my goal, whether or not it is the perfect process to start with.

Fighting for the best of our natures (#1268)

It isn't just the realization that we get to choose how we act and react to reality, but that when we decide to take the high road of living and express our better natures to everyone else, we must recognize that there will be those who will obstruct those expressions as a mean spirited attempt to keep our outlook gloomy. They have an ulterior motive, whether it is power over us, control over resources or even a philosophical bent that has their own system whose interests are tied up in our observance of their belief. I say the hell with all of that and my sleeves get rolled up and I start to focus my eyes in a hard and determined way, ready to fight for my right to be happy. I know that defending my right to a happy expression in action is actually a fight I put up for all of us. Everything I do to protect the best of my nature is a corollary defense of your right to express the best of your nature. I know what it is like to be told to be obedient to that which is less than honorable. I don't need a reminder again of how humiliating and depressing it can be to be told to be less than what I am and can be. So to combat that in my life I don't tolerate the situations that deny me my best nature and the freedom to express it. There is no "deserves" or "due" that is given without condition, so in order to find a life that has within it the basic liberty of knowing who I am and actually being able to express it, is incumbent upon me to establish and procure through the wisdom of argument, and if that fails, the necessary force of might. Unfortunately, there will always be those who think they are the "boss of all of us" and we must decide to protect our inherent right to make our own decisions based upon what we deem to be logical, common-sensical and virtuous. We will spend our lifetime fighting for our best natures to prevail and that is the truth of the matter.

Our better natures or cruel brutish cynicism (#1267)

It is not like we don't have a choice! Everything we do has a choice of options attached to it before we act. We get to establish what our thoughts, actions and reactions are to any and every little thing that happens in our lives. We get to choose all of that if we so desire to be the master of ourself. I may be tied to conventions that restrict me in ways that are necessary for me to have things in life I want, but I choose to have those restrictions as a trade-off for something else. The point is I choose, just like the clothes I wear and how I think about my own priorities. I do not subjugate my thoughts for the convenience of blissful ignorance nor do I agree with others as a way to abrogate my own thought process. My life will be mine and I will in no way ever willingly give it over to someone else who can never be me. Saying that, I want to pivot to how I see the world and how others see the world. I see the world through the eyes of a child who can only marvel at what we are able to do given our resources here in existence. It is amazing to me that being born into a wilderness like this planet offers and taking what is here to better our lives is remarkably cool! Yet others see our society as a winner take all competition where the value of being alive is subordinate to the ability we have to barter with each other. For the life of me, I am so stunned that we humans cannot distinguish between the gift of being alive and how we have come to interact with each other. Our reality has been thrust upon us from conventions that are ancient and out-of-date. Yet we continue to live our lives like we are preordained to follow along the same decaying institutions without having the ability to change and upgrade those institutions. Our visions of the future boil down to either hope or cynicism. I prefer and even demand of myself to enjoy the mindset of hope since it is my better nature and my better nature is my choice for living my life.

We make our own destiny (#1266)

I spend all my time working on the things I hope will come about for our society at large, and to a lesser extent myself. Whether these things I work for actually come about is not what defines me, what I strive for is what defines me. I am not fated to success or failure, I am fated to my human will to give my effort. I am very pleased at this time in my life with the effort I put out for being a positive force for the betterment and progress of humanity. I can admit that I have less concern about myself and more concern about the future generations that are coming forward. I have already lived the best of my hopes and dreams for myself and that is the truth. I am in the winding down process of my life but those who are just starting out are not. They need all the insights and understandings that I have learned to be conformed into a better situation for them than it was for me. I understand the best of me is giving the best of me. In that I get a corollary benefit of satisfaction for working to improve something that otherwise would have less effort into it's creation. Once we as a species discover that placing principles at the forefront of our lives that are founded in honor and noble intention, we find that giving the effort into things that exemplify this honor and noble intention is a reward unto us that cannot be measured by any degree of calculation. All of us humans live from our hearts, and finding what pleases our hearts the most is where we discover that the value of honor and noble intent is our true destiny. All of us are also heroes in our lives and none of us have ever felt that being heroic is a bad thing, on the contrary, we have found that it is a good thing. The only way we can be heroic is to give of ourselves in some way that transfers to others in a way that reflects what is best about us. My destiny is clear to me as anything else I might ever think. Rise up to challenges and never stop moving toward giving back to this existence what I know is better than what I had.

Compromised freedom to reach agreements (#1265)

I was born into this world with nothing to my name but me. I came into existence without any guarantee. I was given what I needed to grow into my own self-supportive being and that was a gift. I need to stay alive and that requires resources of varying degrees. All at the basic level and none that could be construed as elaborate. This is actually the recipe for life for all of us. At the basic level we need to maintain our existence through only a few resources that are natural here on Earth. But for practically all of us, the simplicity of just surviving is not enough. We find that we have a desire to know specific things and to learn those things. We find that we gravitate toward unique and valuable commodities which capture our imaginations. We begin to entangle ourselves in processes for accumulation that restrict our individual ability for an unfettered existence. Most of us are more than willing to trade off some freedom for lifestyles that satisfy us on a level that is acceptable to the trade off. We all do that and no one is immune to being in the arena of compromise. For me, some compromise is how I get to enjoy the company of others and establish some security baselines from which to ground myself. If all I had was freedom, I would find out that my life would be a lot lonelier and less fulfilled. I need more that just freedom to exist. Psychologically, I need to feel a togetherness with other people; a family esprit if you will. My own desire to have all my freedoms will not allow me the option of contracting with others in ways that express desired outcomes. I need to sacrifice some of my freedoms so that we can agree on things that we all can find acceptable. We are not all of the same mindset but we are close enough to have some overlap, therefore some common ground from which to build from by giving up a little freedom, to gain a little more satisfactory agreement.

Reality as an option (#1264)

It does seem strange to think in this term but that "reality" is an option seems prevalent. if I choose to ignore reality and continue on with my own illusion then that really is my reality. Yet it is not what logic or rationality dictates. I suppose that facing the truth of things can be overwhelming for many and that blocking out the truth of reality is more a coping mechanism than an ideal intentional perspective. Why we end up believing what we do is up to the chance of not believing what reality tells us. More of a "wherever I end up" is my truth, not that I planned to go there. Unfortunately, there is no logic in that when we were moved there by avoiding and dismissing the truth of things. I have been baffled by the stern discipline of some to defend positions that are neither logical nor commonsensical. But when I consider that these default positions are the lesser of painful realities for those who cannot face the truth of natural reality, then I begin to understand that it is based upon a survival concept of "fragile consciousness" (my words). The problem with having a conscious of fragility is that if we all shared this phenomenon we would all mostly seem incoherent to each other. That is why we try diligently to maintain and cohabitate in a structured reality based upon our best understanding of what truth is. A fragile consciousness, to me, is defined as the inability to cope with reality in a truthful way and instead changes reality to fit a more comfortable impression. It is an escape clause we design to defend ourselves from what scares us. That we would conclude that ignoring the truth for whatever reason is acceptable to actually living in the truth, despite whatever fear it lays upon us, is not an option worthy of our human potential.

The beginning of the kingdom of humility (#1263)

With the death of greed needed to change how our individual outlooks must shape our society, we are then able to grow into a humble-based society that roots out egoism as a rule and replaces it with humility as the only viable alternative. We have crossed the line into an enlightenment about how all we living breathing human beings should share in the beauty of the world and how we do that is by recognizing our own absolute defense of it. When we start from the correct first premise of our inalienable natural rights, we then can dismiss anything that does not align with equality and fairness. The only thing that deviates us from continuing our human societal equation of humility in the logical manner is the greed that comes from those who would not let go of the greed that fills their obsessions. It is antithetical for greed to exist correspondingly within an individual if that individual is also living in humility. Power, fame nor wealth do not make a person a wise or respected human being, what makes someone worthy of exaltation is when that person does great things for others while not claiming the greatness. Our true wealth is in how we are perceived by others. Is happiness in our lives and all those who live more important than anything else? I say yes! Most say that only through competition can we create and develop innovation. I have a different view on that. When we all share in the ability to learn we then can all share in the capacities of innovation without the forces of stress influencing our minds. The thoughts are out there to be had, does it really matter who brings them to the fore? When we all get to appreciate the advancement? Humility in it's real form does not boast, nor does it weigh it's positive nature on the scale of inequality and unfairness, and ever come up short.

The end of the kingdom of greed (#1262)

Greed has been the one human cruelty that has sustained it's existence through process by alluring those who would be king. An ego justifier that exemplifies the notion that some are better than others therefore deserve all the spoils life has to offer. To the natural extension of causing misery to those who are not considered worthy. The great unscientific/immoral pacifier is that the worthiness is a natural selection true illusion to them and therefore must be how things work. I cannot feel sorry for those who are not worthy since it is in their DNA not to have what greed allows. As if somehow other human beings have not the capacity nor the ability to to exist on the same level as the greed oriented. What the greed oriented don't realize is that they confuse our species' common attributes with a inaccurate inculcation of environmental controls. In other words, we are taught to be greed oriented through practices of existing inequalities. To protect the benefit of greed they have accumulated, from their inner struggles of care for others, they fall back on the premise that deserving more is their destiny based upon the illusion that their ego's have manufactured for them. A trap easily fallen into, who doesn't want to think they are somehow "some special divine gift" about their own life? I am sure every one of us at some time in our lives considered the prospect that we are great and worthy of the best this existence has to offer. I happen to agree with that kind of thinking but in the sense that we are all worthy of the best that this existence has to offer, not just for ourselves. What I believe is not greed for selfish reasons, but equally wonderful practical experiences for all of us.

Do we know what we feel? (#1261)

Has it all just become a blur? Can we even distinguish the emotions we feel inside us? Truth be told I have become hard to some of my feelings. I cannot say with certainty that what I am feeling isn't being blocked by me out of some sort of survival technique. I guess the better question would be "do I really want to feel what is real." Have I so bought into a system that doesn't honor my own senses? I can admit that yes, I have sold a part of me for some illusion that, upon close inspection, defines my character as flawed. Why did I let this happen? I know the how, when, where of it but why? The simple answer is that I gave up on myself in order to acquiesce to conformity. I had to conform as a greater ideal than to be real and feel what I feel about whatever it is that happens in life. I too joined the ranks of the cynical who placed a greater priority on the acceptable expressions of the day. I sold out! Damn me! One thing I have learned over time is that nothing is worth me being anything but myself. Yet here I am confronted with the knowledge that I care less about what I feel and more about what others think I should feel. That is cowardice and surrender. I am not a complete sell-out but I am enough of one to admit it. How do I feel, that will never be the same with me after today. I won't let convention and expectation ever rule me like I have allowed it to do in the past. I get to be me and being me is a good thing. I know me and I can tell you right now that being me is a positive force in life. I will share what I feel when appropriate and it will be real. Not the fake, phony me that goes along with the crowd because it is popular or expected, but the me that actually relates the honest understanding of how I actually feel. :)

Progress without expectation (#1260)

My day to day world is centered on improving my life and life in general around me. Little things that add up over the course of a lifetime can become quite significant. I have accepted the fact of my life that when I am doing something of a positive nature my life is generally a happy one. Regardless of the less than hopeful outcomes that occur, I still nonetheless, enjoy the activity of my life. I have accomplished this small feat, first and foremost from having learned that I cannot have an expectation of an outcome. All I can do is be the best at whatever it is that I am attempting and then move on to the next positive moment. I gain a sense of a peace of mind and a healthy mental attitude by not placing such burdens of expectation on myself. I learned this lesson through sharing equivalent experiences with other like-minded souls so I know this approach to living life is a successful one. Certainly I am never satisfied with outcomes that come up short of being the best they could be but that is not my control. If I had my control over things I wished to make better than yes, I would expect them to change exactly as I had hoped, yet I don't and neither does anyone else. All we can do is live a good life and in doing that, living to work for a better world is the ideal, at least for me. I have two diverse concurrent motivations in constant play, work for a better world and live a happy life. I can do both simultaneously by not having an expectation on the good work I am trying to accomplish. That way I don't carry around regrets or remorse for not trying and just focusing on my own happiness, and I do carry around the peace of mind and happiness that comes with trying and caring despite the less than hoped for outcome that is outside my control.

Actions always speak louder than words (#1259)

"The proof of the pudding is in the eating.", as the old saying goes and that requires action. The results of my actions are what significantly demonstrates my intent. Certainly I don't get the result I always strive for but the effort I put into the action is indicative of my original intent. Such is the case for those who actually achieve their intent. Others are more diffuse about what they say and let their words speak to their intent. Those people are the ones to be wary of. Self congratulatory boastings are easy to give and then just as easily forgotten some time later. That is why I follow the actions of words to their conclusion before I subscribe to someone's claims of intent. There are many in our society that find saying much and doing little is an easy route to success. How is that possible? Apparently it works through the guise of bait and switch. Say what you need to say at one time then adjust the intent to some other promise when it is convenient. I can tell everyone all day long what a great guy I am but have little of anything to back that claim up except my word on it. How am I to be judged on the merits of my being a great guy? Through my actions is how. This "great guy" example is simple but it does reveal that words are just words without be backed up with action. Shall you just take my word for it? Should I provide proof of my claim, since I am the one making the claim? I cannot expect that since no one is refuting my claim to be a great guy, is evidence that I am a great guy. I have to provide examples of my great guy claim. So what have I done to allow myself to call myself a great guy? I need to give evidence proving it. The burden of proof is on me to explain to everyone the actions I have taken to show why it is true that I am a great guy. Anyone who is willing to tell me that they are a great guy without first explaining to me some examples of their greatness are just not being truthful and therefore are being deceptive. The main reason anyone would be deceptive about a claim they do not give examples for is that they are trying to gain some honor that they do not deserve.

We all change over time, will it be positive or negative? (#1258)

Some people see the world and want to change it any way they can, regardless of the outcomes. Others see the world and want to change it but with ideas that benefit most everyone. We live in an imperfect world and the wrongs that exist are either a good or bad thing depending on one's perspective. That is the problem however, the competing perspectives that would make a policy look good in some eyes and bad in others. We have got to get on the same page here in life or we will continue to struggle against the way we treat each other. This can be done but it will take many having to think out beyond themselves. For the most part, that has been the biggest hurdle we have not yet fully cleared. We seem to be stuck in what the mode of structure  we should apply to ourselves. Certainly morality, ethics, justice and equality should all have a part in whatever structure we devise as a foundation for our thoughts and actions, while not inhibiting our own free will to think and create toward innovation and progress. yet we don't even have these discussions on how we learn and mature into society. We need to respect the lives that exist with the same arduous vigor that we do for our own lives. In beginning at respect, we can then build the logic for following onward to the principles we hold most dear, like honor and sacrifice. We are a capable and unique species. We have been given, somehow, abilities that transcend all other species we have encountered. Yet we treat our special advantages with a cavalier sense of deserve that is unfounded in the expression of our out of control egos. We treat life with disdain when it is not ours yet treat our own lives as sacred when asked to gamble on it's forfeiture. The continuity we need is just moments away yet my fear is that the moment may take millenniums to achieve.

The never-ending evolution of enlightenment (#1257)

Our human history is full of examples that show an evolution of what is considered the advancement of enlightenment. When the wheel was invented, when flying became a reality, especially all the way to the Earth's Moon. Now today, we are advancing on the fundamental building blocks of the nature of existence. Our enlightenment as a species has always centered on the accumulation of knowledge. One thing that is paramount to human survival is the basic understanding that learning and obtaining knowledge is foundational to human survival. We may have reached a plateau in our society where some think that learning is not as important as living competitively in motivational way, such as work ethic being greater than discovery, however those few would be wrong. Nothing speaks more to our natures as humans, as being curious as to why we are here in this existence. Maintaining a civilized society is just the plan we use to allow for us to mature into all available knowledge possible. The inner workings of society and how we have subjectively designed it is an abstraction and not the ultimate goal of our destiny, is troublesome. We are a species, by our very abilities to gather data, that are inherently curious to the creation and discovery of our surroundings. For millenniums we were satisfied with just trying to understand the terra firma and the oceans at our feet. We moved beyond that with star-gazing and Earth orbital looking glasses. We are now staged to spend more time moving outside our planet to other places where life can be supported. it is our nature to discover and learn. It is who we are and the mechanisms for the day to day interactions we devise are maintenance and growth operations, hopefully to assist us in our quest to follow our instinct to become more enlightened about that which envelopes us. 

My spiritual connection to this Universe (#1256)

My body is made up of the same atoms and molecules that are in existence here in this Universe. That is my physical connection and it is a solid connection. However, my spirit and it's constituent makeup seems rather foreign to this existence. Ever since my birth I have felt a disconnect with what is here in existence. Now, on the other hand, I am similar to other human beings and we do share the same soulful characteristics, even with other animal species. So the verdict is not clear whether or not my spirit is a foreign entity. What is clear to me though is that my nature, which has much to do with my spirit has found a home in this Universe that compliments it. This Universe is vast and awesome in time and space as well as full of curious unknowns. One of my three natures is to discover and explore. I am a curious person, along with a caring and wanting to survive person as well, and life for me is challenging the unknowns wherever I find them. Even the ones that scare the daylights out of me. lol. I would also like to make a point clear here and now, I am not a religious type person. I respect the fact that I don't know things and I am willing to explore the possibility of all thoughts and ideas but they must make some sense to me, because I am a sense driven entity. The plausibility of such thoughts and ideas must be prioritized. Although I am not a religious person, I am a spiritual one. The difference here is that my spirituality is a real connection to the things that exist as opposed to things I hope exist. I will say this here again like I have in previous posts, I am a human data processor and as such I am the living example of a computer that collects, reasons, analyzes and concludes based upon real life data. I am little more than that, other than a person who knows my abilities and the natures that drive them.

I have no tolerance for willful ignorance (#1255)

I am an Internet junkie of sorts and since I am I get to see and be involved in many different conversations on a wide variety of topics. Unfortunately, most of these discussions are not very logical. Some are and that is where I get most of my inspiration for new thoughts and new understandings. Yet these lesser and lesser fewer times of having good objective debates is troubling. It seems that a few of us have a real thirst for knowledge based in logic and many more do not. It seems that logic and objectivity are not coveted as a foundation for the reasoning process by the majority of we humans. On the contrary, we are far better able to accept talking points as our basis for understanding instead of research and a common sense approach. Generally, our intellectualism has been compromised by a laziness of mind that has no other outcome than to destabilize our past gains and destroy any proper and good future ones. We are a society that has paused to rest on the laurels of our fore parents instead of pushing forward ourselves to improve on what we have been given. Going through life in the confusing motion of ignorance is not acceptable. So instead of having another beer, wine or whiskey to temper our own failings, we would be wise to pick up a book or read an article in the paper or online and digest information instead of ingesting a numbing false sense of acceptability. I have been on both sides of this equation and having survived my ignorance I am a better man now that I am invested in the gathering of knowledge to help lead our society forward, not unlike many who have given of themselves, as the highest priority, to make the world better for others, and in the process as a side effect, making the world better for myself.

I don't like myself when I am crabby (#1254)

I hope this post will be therapeutic for me because talking or writing about my crabbiness out in front of someone else usually alleviates the tension. I have lately been somewhat less relaxed and a little more angry about some things that don't fit my way of doing things. I know that my behavior has changed and is happening and that is why I am admitting it. I can give myriad reasons for justifying some kind of righteous anger if that is what I wanted to do but it isn't. I do admit that life is being a little harder on me right now in some important areas but again, no excuse is validated when I get to choose how I will react. I am human and I will go through times when I am tried in areas that I am vulnerable, nothing new there so why all of a sudden am I more irritable than normal? Somehow I have allowed something to fester in me without addressing it and it is manifesting itself in my less than satisfactory behavior. I need to contemplate and meditate on the recent past and see where the trigger might have transferred from. This is nothing new for me, I know that there are cycles in my life where I need to refresh or reboot my own perspective in order not to become stagnant. I will in some short time figure out what is troubling me and I will deal with it in a mature and sensible way and move on. But for now I am at least aware that I am not on an even keel in my experiencing happiness and believe me getting my comfort zone back as to being a relatively good and happy man, is a high priority. In the meantime I will remain constant and vigilant to keeping my own faults to myself and not let them influence anyone else I come into contact with. There just saying all that has made me smile. :)

Corruption is the enemy of all (#1253)

I have been trying in my mind about how to discuss today's topic. It is floating around in my head without a comprehensive approach for me to make a sensible argument. I will begin by describing the concept, first it is about how we people are the initiators of corruption. It doesn't matter so much what form of system we operate within, essentially people first become corrupt, and then are the corrupters. What I am having a difficulty with is trying to point out that even in the purest form of democracy, it will be undone if the intent of those that lead is to corrupt. Regardless of the political, social, economical and even spiritual promise of equality and respect, no functioning governing system can withstand those who are antithetical to it's pure implementation. When does corruption begin it's nurturing process within us? For most who succumb to corruption's allure, it starts with lust and/or greed. Power and/or wealth are the destabilizers in our initial path to do good. The metaphorical "fork in the road" that has taken many from an honest discipline to serve and improve our society to instead a path of selfishness, disregarding our original purpose. I will always maintain that we are all born innocent and from that initial birth we are inculcated with less than virtuous desires. It is incumbent upon us to resist those less than virtuous desires and build up our resolve to forward our initial innocence. As we get closer to gaining some positions within our society, the pressure builds from those lost souls who have already resigned to corruption to sway the still innocent into their fold. It has been this way since our history was begun and it will only change when we all decide that the virtue of selflessness is the better model for life than the corrupting influence that lust and greed prevail upon us.

The illogical morality of a punishing society (#1252)

Do we see ourselves as children who are out of control and need the stick to keep us in some kind of ethical conformity? Or do we see ourselves as maturing citizens, able to understand the logical distinctions between our choices? In the past history of our society, religion and it's preoccupation with a puritan ethic, has been the hammer that nailed us down into a pattern of behavior best described as subordinate. It was deemed necessary to control an unenlightened populace incapable of drawing the logical conclusions whose objective was to do no harm. Possibly this was an honest interpretation of society's necessary control. However, our past society is no longer relevant in correlating with today's society. We are not children in need of the stick to guide our behavior, on the contrary, we are maturing citizens in need of opportunity and the respect it offers on an equal basis. Though some would make education more difficult for all citizens, for the most part, most believe in continuing the growth and advancement of educational opportunities. This is key since if we are to be the masters of our own destinies, we need the information necessary to achieve that in a world that functions on the need to have as much knowledge as possible. Some who want less opportunity for educating our populace must think that population control through some belief system of ethical conformity, our darker past if you will, is the best way to structure society. I do find that those who do not have the best interest in the growth and maturation of our species by all, certainly do think that for themselves. A selfish, greedy outlook that has no common sacrifice or duty to what our natures are nor to what our natures can achieve. Who are we as a society? What values will we eventually reflect as a species?

The battle for integrity and self-determination (#1251)

Some things in life have such importance to me that I can never let my guard down when possible conflict with them has come about. There are a few decisions I have made, choices that are at the level of sacred, that require my vigilance in maintaining. I cannot just put my choices on cruise-control and expect them to stay intact without me defending them with a captive awareness. From the person I had allowed myself to be, to the person I have become, there was some great movement in my own personal behavior. The transition from then to today is complete, however the allure of going back is always one choice away. No matter how determined I may be in my mind, it is my thoughts and actions that are the weak link to breaking the chain, as it were. So what I do today, when the circumstances get edgy and attractive, is to plan out my time with sensitivity to all the worst case scenarios I am able to logically consider. I will not allow myself to live in an antiseptic world, nor will I allow myself free run in a chaotic one either. therefore, a balance needs to struck between what I am able to participate in and what I should not. Only I know my story and the history of it and only I can be objective about where I do draw a line in the sand as an example of what behavior and situations are appropriate for me. I will say this here and now, my battle with being me is the only factor I consider when deciding what is best for me. I have no opinion, nor should anyone else, on the value of what others do with their own battles to maintain their own personal integrity. Life is fun and should be experienced in a fun way as often as possible, yet knowing where the fun ends, and choices that devalue my integrity begins, is the tension I am in constant vigil over.

For some, it is easier to hate than to love (#1250)

Does life have values for you? Are those values redeemable? For some value is only obtained in victory for oneself and defeat for another. The lust for things that would bring about wealth and the accumulation process necessary to obtain wealth can best be described as raw-survivalism in a most extreme form. A cannibalization mindset that does not allow for the sensitivity of emotion to grow, only the emotions of a negative, powerfully aggressive, hate filled agenda. A panoramic perspective that has no consideration for others at it's core, instead it has a strategy of total disregard for others. How do these people evolve from innocence into it's denial? All I can surmise is that life has dealt all of us many unfortunate blows in our hopes and dreams in ways that have inflicted horrible sensations upon our minds and souls. Most of us, through time, rebuild our lives and find the happiness that had been temporarily taken from us, in my surmise, some others have not been able to adjust and have instead formed a new theory that love is a detriment and the frustration and disappointment of loves hoped for outcome is an illusion, therefore hate is better served to fuel the previous angst love has unfortunately supplied. For them, trial and error, if love doesn't work then no need to try it again so trying hate seems the next logical step. It is a weak and cowardly conclusion to come to but that doesn't stop some from exercising it. Through hate, they can find opportunities for justifying lying, cheating and stealing as norms and anyone who gets in their way is just another sucker to be used at all costs. Not much innocence left in that way of thinking but when the mind is warped to honest logic, it is very difficult to untwist the illogical bends of thought. Such is our society today and until we all come to be more enlightened to hate and it's genesis, all of us will continue to suffer it's application by those who live for it.

I will never again lose my honorable principles (#1249)

What is the best of me is reflected in how I feel about myself. I have found that only true confidence in myself comes about when I am honoring virtue with thought and action. Not just to talk about it but to actually act upon the noble principles in my everyday life. I have been lucky. I say that because I got lost to who I was at the beginning of my life for a long time and when chance came upon me to find my true being, I took the chance and gave up those things that had kept me in confusion. My behavior and habits had become my automated program for living instead of just letting life come to me and me letting my life come to all others. I quit forcing things and I quit trying to manage all my expectations. I just quit trying to control what I thought I should control. Now, I just let the best of my nature align with honor and let things be as they will be. I don't have to compromise with selfishness or greed for people, places and things. I accept that I am just fortunate to have what I was born with and let that drive me through life. I do like that some things in life have no direct commercial value attached to them. It seems we will only kid ourselves if we think we don't attach a price and strategy to how we decide what our lives will become and that is important to us and I am no different. But in the areas of personal and public, principled ideals, there is no strategy, just the doing of what is best about me and the circumstances I find myself in. I don't trade principles for other values. I don't see principles as commodities that have an adjusted value. Life for me is about living to the utmost of my virtues and in this I am of one accord.

More than hope (#1248)

From an idea springs thought and action. In our world today hope has inspired some to step up and counter forces that traditionally quash hope as a rule. There have been great achievements that hope has inspired for many in generations preceding our's now. Our short but enduring national evolution has been chock full of examples that reached out and above what at first seemed difficult to impossible. We know hope is successful in bringing about our better natures in extraordinary ways but recently hope has been elusive in areas of just mundane progress. Our country has been at a crossroads where current and recently past economic/political theory has allowed for power and rule to shift from the majority, with minority compromise, to a system where the minority disregards the conventions of rule and instead work to dictate to the majority it's agenda, increasingly through it's powerful economic grip. Traditionally we are democratic in political foundation and in our policy formation, yet we have veered from this normal course and opened up a fissure that allows for the extreme of falsity and abuse to sway opinion as a right to be protected. We have gone so far in our defense of "free speech" that we are now unable to legislate the difference between the truth and out and out lies. Perhaps my hope is that we can recognize the error of putting the right to lie on the same footing with the right to know the truth. Hope has to have the truth of a thing at it's core but if we are left with lies masquerading as truth, then we need more than hope to right what is obviously wrong.